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10 thoughts on “The Recode Interview With Elon”

It was funny how he got Trumpshamed for criticizing the media but even though he agrees with Trump about how the media are just dishonest hacks who intentionally distort things, backed down when it came to the phrase enemy of the people. Do you see where that can lead? Apparently not to the media reflecting on the criticism and doing a better job.

The pickup truck is a good idea for Tesla but does Musk understand people who drive trucks? I’m not sure they want a cyberpunk truck. They want a truck that can haul a boat a couple hundred miles or drive up into the mountains or scablands for a week of hunting. They want a truck that can do work. Truck people are probably the hardest audience for Musk to win over and they don’t buy into the cult of personality but the good news is they can be won over by competence of utility, assuming that Musk doesn’t offend them in other ways such that not buying one is a point of principle.

Interesting interview, especially how easy it was to pressure someone with FU money and the gravitas to do whatever they want to cave into the latest SJW rage escapades.

Really, Musk would not agree that the media is the enemy of the people. But neither does Trump. Trump says the fake news media is the enemy of the people. The interviewer, like much of the media, was pushing the lie that it is all media that Trump calls the enemy. Elon made it plan that he also hates the fakers in the media. He just gave up trying to explain it to one with deaf ears.
I might have given up by then as well to get on with the important parts of the interview.

A light commercial pickup for in-city delivery would seem like a good idea — you are never far from a charging station. Talk to me when a fleet of them are motoring through the streets of Tokyo and I will consider them a practical idea.

Maybe this is regional, but in urban Texas, where there are a *lot* of pickup trucks, most people get them because it’s cool to think about hauling boats and hay and whatever, but really you just want to pick up a couple 2x4s from the hardware store on the weekend and occasionally help people move. I think a Tesla would sell just fine into that market.

Personally I think pickups are useless, because every time I use them for cargo it rains. But vans aren’t cool, for some reason, so nobody has them except for professionals. Which is also the reason Tesla won’t make a van.

I think a self driving electrical van could be interesting.
Any human driving ability option doesn’t need to be in front of vehicle.
You don’t need windows and via a monitor one could get any view outside the van. And such monitors could be large or hand held.
Drivers/owners would need to be recognized, but don’t need to be in vehicle.

Kara’s upside is that she has the chops to conduct a knowledgeable interview and make it interesting, even with an introvert like Musk.

Kara’s downside is that she’s willing to hammer her political agenda into it wherever the opportunity arises.

There wasn’t really anything new in the SpaceX discussion – much more of interest in the discussion of Tesla and the Boring Company – but the queries about Jeff Bezos/Blue Origin and the Saudis were slightly of interest. Bezos will have more trouble than he thinks actually getting to orbit, Musk thinks, but he readily concedes that he has the funding to figure it out and make it work. Perhaps even more ineresting was the mild tension that seemed to pop up when it became apparent that Musk was a little less willing to forego funding or investment in SpaceX from Saudi citizens than Swisher would have liked.

Only read the transcript but Kara Swisher seems to be a SJW type herself, demanding that he condemn the Saudis as a collective for the actions of a few. Especially given Khashoggi probably earned his death warrant – we in the west have become very squishy, even when it comes to dealing with evil men. And her attacks on Trump are ridiculous – she’s one of those he’s mad at. They just can’t keep their opinions to themselves.

Kudos to Musk for dealing rather fairly with Swisher and her attitude.